The Creature

I’ve noticed that I’ve looked at a lot of Dark MLP fan-created projects on here. I mean I’ve looked at some fanfics, games, and videos that have all been a bit on the dark side.

I think it’s time for a Break.

I decided for the next couple of “Letters to Celestia” Blogs, I’ve going to try and stay away from the Graphic Stuff I’ve looked at in the past and look some that are happy and are a lot like the show. For Today’s topic, I picked a random piece of fanfiction that I found online, and the one that I chose is called “Never Stop Smiling”.

[I’m not showing Images for now since they are major spoilers for it.]

The story is told from the perspective of Rainbow Dash and is in the form of a letter which is being addressed to Pinkie Pie.

In the letter, Rainbow tells Pinkie of how much she had fun with and reminisces about the good times they’ve had together as friends. Plus she brings up the facts of how she was there to comfort when she was REJECTED by the Wonderbolts Academy. She then starts to develop Feelings for Pinkie but never really admits it to her.

The Next day, Rainbow awakes to find Pinkie not moving…at all…for several hours… She then comes to conclusion that Pinkie Pie died.

She’s then taken to a Hospital where it’s revealed that she apparently had a Disease (It never states the name) and Pinkie apparently never revealed it to anybody and pretended like it wasn’t there at all. Obviously, everyone is completely distraught by the news and Rainbow was the most crushed by the news since she had recently develop feelings for her. (Which was the day before the incident.)

The Letter that she’s writing is apparently being written 8 YEARS after the whole incident and she tells to Pinkie what happens to everyone after it. Twilight moves back to Canterlot where she becomes a Royal Assistant to Princess Celestia (She doesn’t become a Princess. This was probably written in between Season 3 since they reference “Wonderbolt Academy”.) Rarity and Fluttershy apparently start Dating and become engaged, and Applejack and Rainbow Dash get married. Although she still has feelings for Pinkie. This is the main reason why she wrote the letter, to tell her this since she didn’t have the strength to do so when she was still around.

Personally, I don’t really care about Shipping and I don’t Ship anyone either. So the whole idea of this fanfic seemed like it was one big Sad Shipping Party. It reminded me of something like Love Actually if the Alan Rickman/Emma Thompson story affected all the others and it had a sad ending.

Most fanfics exist in some kind of different reality due to the situations that involved in the stores. This one was very similar to the show’s storyline with some minor changes to it. (Twilight is not a Princess, Rainbow being rejected from WBA, etc.)

If only Quinn Mallory was there to help.

To be honest, I do not like Rainbow Dash at all. She’s my least favorite character in the show and she just makes me upset whenever she pops up. (I’ll probably explain why in the near future.)When I wasn’t looking foward to reading this since she would probably do the same old stuff she always does, but in this she didn’t actually bother me at all in this. She actually seemed likeable to me and she showed some genuine emotions in here.

Overall, I thought this was a pretty decent Fanfic. It will seem like one big ship-fic towards the end of it, but I’m use to seeing ALOT of those so it didn’t bother me. I guess you can read it if you want to.

Creature: A Long Time Ago in the Early ’90s, the world of video games was coming to a new age of Home Entertainment with New Genres and Higher Quality. One of the more popular genres to spawn was the First Person Shooter which put the player in the point of view of the main character and was popularized with a little game called Doom.

The Original game from 1993 was a milestone for the video game industry that spawned many sequels, as well as some controversy, and has become one of the most influential and popular video games in history. Eventually, the executives over in Hollywood got the idea to adapt the game onto the Silver Screen. So, Jim Bevan and I decided to take a look at the film.

Jim: Thanks for having me here, Creature. Though I have to confess I’m coming into this partially blind. I never played the original DOOM or its sequels when it came out (at the time I was more of a console gamer and only really played adventure games on the PC). Even when I got older I never had much of an interest in it or related media, including the film version released in 2005. When Mathew Buck reviewed that version on Bad Movie Beatdown, my curiosity was piqued. I had to see if it was, as he put it, a guilty pleasure. I have to disagree with Mr. Buck, as the movie doesn’t even reach the level of ‘so bad it’s good’, at least not for me.

Indeed it can be “So Bad, It’s Good” (depending on the viewer.) So let’s dive into it.

Creature: In the year 2046, the Union Aerospace Corporation sends out a Distress signal from their Research Facility on Mars of a Quarantine Breach involving some unknown enemy force. A team of Eight Marines [The Rock, Karl Urban, and 6 others] are assigned to go up to the Red Planet to contain the facility, retrieve the scientists who sent the call, & neutralize the threat. As they go further in the base, they soon realize the threat might be more dangerous than they realize and try to stop it before it reaches Earth.

Jim: The movie starts off well enough setting the scene for the marines’ arrival on Mars and their first confrontation with the evil that’s infested the UAC facility, but then it falls apart. The biggest problem is how it ignores the source material. In the game, the monsters encountered have come from hell through an interdimensional rift created from a failed teleportation experiment. Here, the creatures are created by injecting humans with gene samples from the remains of an ancient Martian race. That’s not DOOM; that’s Resident Evil, along with dozens of other horror/sci-fi plots that revolve around monsters born of genetic tampering.

Aside from scrapping the game’s premise for something more cliched, the movie is dragged down by a number of glaring plot-holes. Just off the top of my head: the marine squadron, who should all be well-trained, make incredibly idiotic moves like splitting up into small groups and firing at anything that moves. The infection spreads, as Dr. Samantha Grimm exposits, by detecing the genetic marker for “evil” to find a new host, which is a stretch even for a fantasy. Every victim who becomes a carrier mutates into a hideous abomination, except for the designated hero John (because he’s pure or some such nonsense). Basically, the writers decided to treat genetic science as magic that could change as the plot depended on it, which would have been unnecessary if they’d just kept the hell aspect, since the effects could have been explained as truly supernatural.

Creature: I was Disappointed with the plot. They definitely went with some very idiotic decisions with it, especially the whole “Infection” idea.

Creature: Some of the casting choices for this seemed similar to an Action film. Karl Urban is Reaper and he’s supposedly the main character from the games (“The Doom Guy”). He basically seemed to be “Pure”, as Jim Mentioned, he didn’t have much of a motive to him and wasn’t a very good character to me.

Oddly, the Rock comes off more as a villian in the film. More so than the monsters. In D3, they had a villian who caused the demons to start spreading throughout the base, Dr. Betruger. In this, they threw the whole Demon aspect away and made the Rock seem more like a Leader who basically wanted every threat dead. (Which oddly reminded me of Sgt. Kelly from D3.)

Rosmund Pike plays Repaer’s Sister whose a Scientist working on Mars and provides nothing but exposition for what’s happen and how the infection is spreading.

The other soldiers came off as pretty generic. They didn’t have personalities to them and only exist to get killed off in the film. The only character that seemed a bit likable to me was Pinky.

Jim Bevan: Just about everyone in the cast played a stock character that you see in many generic action/horror films – the normally stoic, battle-hardened soldier who eventually goes crazy or becomes a puppet of the evil he’s fighting (Sarge), the scientists who succumb to their own monstrous creations (Dr. Carmack and Pinky), the ex-criminal seeking redemption, eventually sacrificing him/herself (Goat), the heroic white people who end up saving the day (the Grimm siblings), and so on.

It doesn’t really matter which actors ended up portraying them, since I feld the script was so weak that no matter who was in the part would have performed just as poorly considering the material they were given. None of the cast were memorable or interesting, just bland and cliched. When the protagonist from the DOOM tie-in comic is a more engaging character (“Now I’m radioactive! That can’t be good!), the writers and directors have failed.

Creature: Based on what I saw throughout the film, the “Demons”were mostly based on the designs from Doom 3. They only use Three of the demons that were in the game: The Hell Knight, Imps, & Pinky. [There was also Zombies but a lot of Games have those. Thus they didn’t really stand out to me like the others.]

 

The designs for their movie counterparts seemed actually very accurate to D3 with a minor difference with Pinky having Wheels instead of mechanical legs. So, at least the film got that part right.

For the special effects, they were alright. They seemed to be regular CGI that you would see in these kind of films.

Jim: Pinky was the only creature I found truly impressive. The build, fusion of the wheelchair to its body as a reminder of the transformation it went through, and lack of eyes made it stand out. All the other monster designs seemed rather generic to me. I haven’t played DOOM 3 so I can’t say how they compare. I would have liked a little more variety than just three monster types; they could have been used in place of the generic zombies, though I suppose budget restrictions prevented that from happening

Creature: I definitely agree that they needed more monsters from the game. Personally I would have loved to see some Lost Souls or Cherubs running around the base.

 

Creature: Of course with this being a Video Game Movie, Changes were made, and being a very big fan of the video games they were very easy to notice. The obvious one, as Jim Mentioned, is that they are Demons but they are just humans who were experimented on…Okay, this basically ruined the whole idea and the atmosphere that the Games set up with its very Demonic and Graphic imagery. The movie also tried to be consistent with the lighting of the game especially since in the 3rd one, your flashlight is one of the most frequently used items to explore the Facility, but the problem is sometimes you can’t see very much of anything. Then there’s the First Person Scene….

The scene was supposed to replicate playing the game in Rampage or Beserk mode, but it ended up looking like your watching a Walkthrough of the game on Youtube. For me, this doesn’t not even hold up well to the games.

FINAL THOUGHTS:

Creature: I thought this was a dumb movie. Being a fan of the game, there were aspects of it that were disappointing, some choices I didn’t like, although it could come off as a Guilty Pleasure for fans of the games, Not for me though.

Jim Bevan: As I said before, I never played the games so I can’t judge them regarding how faithful they are to the source material. But as a film judged on its own merit, it’s just dull. I didn’t even get an ironic sense of entertainment from how poor it was. I was just bored. I will agree that some of the aspects they tried to bring over that you brought up, such as the lighting and the FPS segment, were good in theory but weak in execution.

Like you, I can’t say this is a guilty pleasure. It’s not horrible, but sometimes mediocrity is worse than outright badness.

Thanks for having me here, Creature.

The Creature: Thank for joining me in the Review.

Recently, wreceived some shorts that revolved around Rainbow Rocks and after the original trailer, which didn’t really much, It was refreshing to see something different. So I decided to take a look at both of them.

Spoilers Ahead.

“Music to My Ears”

The first short was Vinyl Scratch/DJ-Pon3’s EqG Counterpart and her listening to her music as she goes about her day.

…and that’s pretty much it.

There isn’t really much to say about this. All Vinyl does is walk around, Listen to Dubstep, and heads back to the School. Five of the Mane 6 make a cameo in it while at a Coffee Shop. I’ll admit that the short didn’t give anything away relating to the film, at least I don’t think so, aside from knowing Vinyl will have a major role in the film.

Vinyl doesn’t talk at all which probably could be a good thing as many people love the Fandom’s VA for her. (I forgot her name at the moment, but I do like her as well.)

The only problem I had with the short is simple…I Hate Dubstep. No offense to people who do like it, I just find it to be extremely loud, Annoying, and very Pointless music that would make Lou Reed’s Metal Machine Music seem like New Age Sounds of Nature.

Aside from that, I thought it was a good short.

“Guitar Centered”

The Five Girls decide to go to an Instrument Store/Guitar Shop so Rainbow Dash can replace her incredibly damaged Guitar. She spots a Double Neck Guitar and decides to get it, but Trixie wants it as well. So the two decide to have a Rock Off to decide who gets the Guitar. (Let Me Guess, the winner also has to pay Tenacious D’s Rent.)

They basically play some Riffs and Rainbow somehow activates her powers and wins the competition but decides to take the Guitar she won the battle with instead of the Double Neck. Trixie then buys it, but finds out it costs $12,000.

I have to admit, it was nice seeing Trixie again and getting more lines than the first movie. Plus I had no idea she could play Guitar. With Rainbow Dash playing Guitar, wasn’t very surprising at all since they build her up to be “Awesome” all the time. I want to know how exactly she can activate her powers simply by playing Guitar. (It would make sense to me if she were playing a Jimi Hendrix or Jimmy Page song extremely accurate.)

Personally, I thought it Good as well.

Hamstocalypse Now

Fluttershy gets assistants for Rarity for taking care of an absurdly large amount of Hamsters in a Pet Store while she takes care of cleaning their cages. After she’s done, they are everywhere and apparently Rarity named all of them and turned them into some kind of Hamster Soap Opera. Fluttershy then uses her Tambourine, which apparently hypnotizes them, and gets them back into their cage.

Unlike Rainbow Dash who had to get a new Guitar, Fluttershy already had the Tambourine. (If it was Green, I would recognize the Obscure’60s song reference.) Much like Rainbow Dash, when she plays the Tambourine, she activates her Powers by simply playing. I wish they would explain how that works. I hope they do in the future.

Also, The first thing that popped in my head when I saw the title was Colonel Kurtz whispering “The Horror. The Horror.” (It’s Incredibly Obvious Why.)

I thought it was a good short overall.

Pinkie on the One

Rainbow Dash is seeking a new Drummer for her band, but she just can find anyone who has the Energy, the ability to use both hands at once, and the right “instincts” apparently…

Gee…I wonder who she’s going to pick…

…That would be Awesome, but no, it’s obvious she picks Pinkie Pie for it.

After playing a small solo, Rainbow is pretty much convinced and she becomes a member of the band.

The set-up for this was very different for the other shorts. It didn’t really have anything happening in it like the previous ones. This one was just a bunch of things happening throughout the day mixed in with some Comedy instead of one major event that needed Pinkie to be on Drums. (I’m mainly basing this idea off Rainbow’s short Guitar Centered.)

Pinkie Pie being on Drums wasn’t much of a surprise for me. It seemed very fitting for her.

Overall, I thought it was a good Short. (This has been pretty repetitive hasn’t it?)

Player Piano

Rarity has to get her Piano to band practice but can barely move it. So she gets the help of the Diamond Dogs by having them carry it with her on top.

[I have to admit the Diamond Dogs look weird in this.]

When she arrives, they run out of time and have to move their practice to the gym. Pinkie then suggests instead of using the Piano, she recommends the Keytar since it’s lighter. She then accepts using it by simply playing it. (Like everyone else, that’s how she activates her powers.)

This short, much like Music to my Ears, didn’t anything that resembled a real conflict. It seemed more like a Minor inconvenience. So that was a bit of a disappointment for me.

The one thing I was really wondering since the first trailer came out is “Why does Rarity get a Keytar?” I understand why she’d have a Piano, but since they are trying to come off similar to an 80’s Rock Band, I think Rarity should have a Synthesizer instead.

Never the less, I thought it was a decent short. Plus I actually think this was one of the weaker shorts. (That’s a shame considering Rarity’s one of my favorite Characters on MLP.)

I bet after Rainbow Rocks, she’d probably take some Keytar tips from Jan Hammer.

A Case for the Bass

During a Yard Sale at the Apple Family Home, Granny Smith accidentally sells Applejack’s Bass Guitar to a couple of Pawn Shop owners and the Girls decide to get it back.

…and who ones this Pawn Shop? None other than two of my favorite Secondary Villains from the show, Flim and Flam!

(At first, the way they look bugged me, but seconds later I got over it.)

She tries to get it back from them at the same price of $2 that Granny Smith sold them, but instead they ask for $1000. Plus they also have their doubts, suggesting she can’t even play the bass. So, she does to prove them wrong. Even after doing so, they still want the money, but they instead come up with the idea for a trade so she doesn’t have to give them the money which ended up having Applejack in a Banana Suit advertising their store.

…You’d think it would be an apple suit, but I guess they probably didn’t have one in their shop.

( One thing I did notice in the pawn shop was that there’s a Dark Side of the Moon Album except it had Rainbow Power instead of the Traditional Rainbow on it. I thought that was a nice touch. They also had the first Velvet Underground album as well. )

Granny Smith does bring up an interesting question. “Since When Do you Know how to play Bass?” I am actually very intrigued on that question with most of the Girls’ instruments. Except Fluttershy, the Tambourine is way too easy to learn. Rarity and Rainbow were most likely given Lessons. Pinkie pretty much knew how the instant she sat in front of a Drum set.

As for Applejack, I think she probably got to learn bass by hanging out with Lemmy Kilmister.

Or maybe since she’s a cartoon, maybe she hung out with Murdoc Niccals…

…Actually, that’s a bad idea.

Never the less, I do think that a Bass Guitar is very fitting for Applejack. (Either that or she should have an Acoustic Guitar.)

I know I’ve mentioned this before, but this is still an important issue for me and for all of the shorts. I really want them to please explain WHY playing an instrument suddenly activate their powers. I really need this to be explained. It’s happened for the entire mane 6 and it’s starting to bug me.

Overall, I think this was probably the best of the Shorts so far. Even though I not a big Applejack fan, I still enjoyed it a lot.

Well, This probably might be all of the shorts considering Twilight Sparkle doesn’t have an instrument to play. Although, they still could do a short about Sunset Shimmer’s role in the next film since Rebecca Shoichet announced she would be in it….I just really hope Flash Sentry isn’t in it. I’ve started to get annoyed by him recently…

Recently, Two Music Videos of songs from Rainbow Rocks were released. So I decided to look at them.

Shake Your Tail

The video depicts the Mane 6 setting up for either a Dance or their Concert. Each of them have a different theme for it, but they can really agree on any of them. So, Rainbow Dash decides to mix them all together. It’s also mixed in with them as a Band playing the song.

If curious here are the themes they each had:

Pinkie – Hawaiian

Rainbow Dash – Sports

Applejack – Farm

Rarity – Masquerade

Twilight Sparkle – School

Fluttershy – Animals

Apparently, the one thing I noticed a lot of people liked about the video was the fact it showed that they had Normal Feet.

I guess that could be considered a relief to some considering how long their legs look and with their Knee High Boots; it looked like they would have huge feet. Personally, I didn’t care about ho big their feet are, but I guess it’s nice they aren’t huge.

The song itself was alright in my opinion. It mainly just sings about getting ready for something, and them saying “Shake Your Tail.” Not really much else to say about it.

One thing I’ve actually noticed is that so far, Each of the Shorts have been used in the Trailer for it. That leaves the possibility of the film being either Different or it’s not a film, but just a bunch of Shorts. After all, we don’t know why Twilight goes back or why they form a Band in the first place. So that does leave room for it to be much better than expected. (Much like the first film.)

Overall, I thought it was alright. I thought it was ok for being a Music Video & I think it would have worked better as just a short.

Perfect Day For Fun!

This MV is set in a Carnival hosted by Canterlot High where the Mane 6 go around and do various things around it in 3 separate groups: Twilight is with Fluttershy, Rarity is with Pinkie, and Applejack is with Rainbow Dash.

(If you listen closely, you might be able to hear thousands of Shippers shrieking in joy at this site.)

They mostly text throughout it to tell each other where they are via Cutie Marks and photos of where they are in the Carnival and they eventually do perform at the Carnival to a decent sized crowd (At Least for a School operated Carnival.)

Throughout the Video, They do various typical Carnival stuff such Carnival Games, Eating Cotton Candy, and various other things as shown via Photos on Cell Phones.

I have to admit, the Screenshot of Fluttershy walking out of the Funhouse unimpressed is an accurate portrayal of how I walk out of most modern Horror Films.

The MV, much like the EqG Movie, is packed in with a lot of Cameos. You see Photo Finish, Trixie, Cheerilee, Big Mac, the CMC, Derpy, Granny Smith, and Luna. Plus Twilight even wins a Discord Plush, much to Fluttershy’s discomfort.

Spike also makes a minor cameo in the video, so he obviously goes back with Twilight.

The Video does also show that Twilight does know how to use a cellphone, so she probably will start to be able to understand Human Technology in the new film. Either that or this is the Twilight Sparkle in the Human World that Pinkie brought up. ( It’s most likely not though.)

The Song that was song was pretty decent. It was basically a song about hanging out with your friends. Not really much to say. I will admit, I actually liked it sung in Spanish more than in English.

There was one thing that bugged me half way through the video…It was when I spotted a certain character…(you’ll spot who I’m talking almost immediately.)

……

At first, Flash Sentry didn’t bother me at all in the first film, but he eventually started to irritate me and now I just get upset whenever he pops up. Unfortunately, this might imply that he’ll probably be in the next Movie…

Overall, I thought it was Alright, aside from my obvious problem with it. I liked this one a bit more than “Shake Your Tail” mostly because of the Song. I thought it was a decent song wtih a decent video for it.

P.S. With them being at the Carnival, the whole video reminded me of the last 10 minutes of Grease.

As a movie going audience, people always try to explore and expand their pallet by checking out some films that are outside their range or likeness. With that being said, I wanted to something a bit different with this list. I’ve decided to share My Top 13 Films that I Never Expected to End Up Liking.

These will cover many different genres and hopefully different decades of film as well.

On that note, here’s the List:

13. The Last Temptation of Christ

Personally, I’m not a religious person. I usually tend to not see most Religious films, but this film and its history got me intrigued enough to watch it. (I heard this movie wasn’t really liked with some religious communities.) I was expecting a film very similar to The Passion of Christ; then I found out about the film’s source material and it got me intrigued. After viewing it, I was surprised. It was actually a fascinating way of portraying Christ as an actual human being instead of just a 1-note character.It definitely stands out among other Religious films. Plus where else will you find a Jesus movie with David Bowie in it?

12. Fright Night (2011)

Im mostly likely not alone when I say that modern remakes suck. Thankfully though, we get some small glimpses of decent if not good reboots and for me this was one of them.

I’m not going give away to much since I’m going to do an Old vs New on Fright Night soon, so I’ll leave it at this:

I thought it was good. Although the CG Blood was annoying.

11. Badlands

You’d think that with my thoughts on Terrence Malick’s films, I’d probably absolutely his first film….

It turns out this film had Characters with Personality, A Story that made sense, and it didn’t bore me.Add in his usually tricks with a Camera and you get a Malick film worth seeing.

10. The Princess Bride

When I was a kid, I barely explored the Fantasy genre. Aside from reading the Narnia & Harry potter books, I knew very little about it, so I was hesitant to watch this when I was younger. Especially with the title, I thought it was aiming more toward the female demographic. Thankfully, Rob Reiner did a great job with the film mixing in Comedy with the Fantasy and giving the world many lines of Memorable and Quotable dialogue.

9. My Dinner with Andre

It’s two guys…who sit down at a restaurant…and they order & eat their dinner while talking…for at least 100 Minutes…what could I possibly see in this film?

…Well, I found their conversation to be interesting, it’s a rather unique if not dull idea for a film, and I really enjoy Wallace Shawn & Andre Gregory in the film.

8. The Endless Summer

Documentaries can always be a bit of a mixed bag. It mainly depends on the Directors and how they handle the subject material. With the Endless Summer, It was an interesting documentation of two boys who went surfing all around the world. I also found to be a bit informative considering I’ve never have gone surfing (but many of my friends/former classmates did and a few of them looked like Jeff Spicoli.) So, I find to be a good documentary on an activity that I’ve never participated in.

7. Akira

I’ve mentioned this before, but I rarely watch Anime. I’ve barely found some that really spark my interests. Then I found this film and it really opened my eyes into the Genre. With the film’s acclaim and popular reputation, I don’t need to say much aside from this:…I need to watch more Anime.

6. The Cabinet of Dr Caligari

I know that I said that this is my All Time Favorite Movie, and that’s probably going to bring up the question: “Why isn’t this your Number 1?” While I consider the film to be my favorite, it definitely wasn’t as some the other films on here. So, I still love this movie. I just think my Top 5 had more impact on the “Never Expected to like it” aspect.

5. Mary & Max

…This was a Depressing film…that’s what I heard about it, and that’s what I have to say about it. It’s still a good film though & I do recommend seeing it.

4. Drive

As I mentioned that I don’t like most of Terrence Malick’s films, it’s probably hinting that I hate most Arthouse films. Thankfully Nicolas Winding Refn helped me take a second chance at them. This was definitely a rather different Arthouse film though. While still sharing the style similar to a Malick film, the film gives a Moody Atmosphere, Synthpop Music, Plenty of Action Scenes, and some good performances from the actors. Plus it gives off the feeling of Miami Vice crossed with Transporter if it was directed by David Lynch.

3. Sideways

Being in California, Ive been taken to Wine Country many times in my life so far. (Im not into drinking Wine yet.) I was recommended this movie by a couple of people (my parents included) and it definitely was a unique sit. I didn’t know how a movie about going to Santa Barbara would turn out, thankfully it turned out better than I thought. (With it being a comedy, I almost expected a Raunchy-Road trip movie similar to American Pie.)

2. Her

Personally, I had no real expectations on this film when I heard of it. I am a fan of Spike Jonze’s previous films, although I wasn’t to keen on the idea of a man having a relationship with a computer. (I expected some a bit graphic) Plus I have to admit, I am not a fan of most Romance Movies (or “Rom Coms”.) Surprisingly, it ended up being very charming and the relationship aspect was handled very well with the writing and performances from Joaquin Phoenix and Scarlet Johansson’s voice acting as the OS. There is one thing that bothered me but it’s very minor and doesn’t take away much from the film as a whole.

and finally my #1 choice…

…this film pretty much eliminated my expectations going into it. I was expecting an extermely generic dance film which was an earlier version of the Breakin’ trilogy…I was very wrong. The movie pretty much took me by surprise with the film’s themes and some minor issues that are still around, John Travolta’s performance, and the film’s soundtrack. With what people will say it’s about it may come off as a dated dorky film, but trust me when I say that it’s more than just a simple movie about Dancing.

I hope you enjoyed the list & feel free to share some of your examples of films that unexpectedly caught your interest.

When I did my Top 26 Favorite Films, I noticed that I only had One Animated Film on there. So I decided to make a List of them to make up for that.

( It’ll probably be obvious for my Number 1 is since it was one my favorite films list. )

13. Sita Sings the Blues

I recently discovered this one not too long ago, and was really surprised by it. It was done in multiple animation styles based on what the scene, the main character’s dialogue was all Annette Henshaw songs & ended up being really enjoyable for me.

12. Heavy Traffic

Ralph Bakshi. He’s always made some bizzare Animated films & I felt the need to include one of them on here. It’s got alot of Adult themes in it (as most Bakshi films do.) and I found it to be a memorable and Bizzare watch.

11. Fantasia

It’s Fantasia. I don’t really need to say much more. (If curious, My Favorite Segments are Night on Bald Mountain & Soceror’s Apprentice.)

10. Yellow Submarine

Peter Max Style Animation mixed in with Beatles Music. You can’t go wrong with it.

9. Toy Story

Although I like a lot of Pixar Films more than this, Toy Story has my overall favorite. I like the characters, the animation was ground-breaking (Some parts of it haven’t aged well.) [Plus the story has been used alot.] It still ends up being very enjoyable for me.

8. Akira

Ok, I don’t watch much Anime. I’ve only seen 4 Anime films and this one I found the most enjoyable. The Animation in this looks outstanding and ended up being an enjoyable sit for me.

7. Alice in Wonderland

This has to be my favorite Classic Disney film.  I’ve watched it alot as a kid and I often will still watch again. I also often read the original story as well.

6. Iron Giant

Brad Bird has always been one of my favorite film Directors. I always love his films, especially this one. I like how it’s set up similar to a B-Movie in the ’50s where you’d see films about Giant “Monsters” (Bugs in particular.) or Invaders from Space, I Like the Characters (Mainly the Giant & Mansley), the relationships of the characters, and the animation. [ I also find it interesting Pete Townshend produced this.]

5. Secret of NIMH

It can be a favorite Animated films list without Don Bluth, So I picked his most popular. I like how it has a Dark Atmosphere to it mixing Science, Nature, & the Mysterious. I love the use of Backlighting for the Animation, the film has a good cast, and It’s a great film.

4. Secret of Kells

This film has some of the best Art Style & Animation I’ve ever seen. the Animation looks like it goes 3 Dimensional at times, even though it’s hand drawn, The Characters are likeable, and It not obnoxious as some animated films can get.

3. Persepolis

Of course I picked a film that’s had some controversy behind it. This one dealing with a child growing up during Iranian Revolution, based on the Director’s Novel. I liked how the animation was mainly in Black & White in the past, plus I ended up liking the main character and found her life interesting. (Especially since her uncle was voiced by Iggy Pop.) I highly recommend seeing this if you haven’t yet.

2. Mary & Max

I discovered this a Month Ago and I was amazed how dark the subject material was for this film. I never expected a film to dive into the territory of Child neglection, autism, (particularly Aspergers) Depression, and Anxiety. The characters in this looked a bit ugly, I found it interesting how one both of the characters’ worlds were both in Different colors. The film ended up being a bit depressing, but enjoyable as well.

and my #1…..

1.Nightmare Before Christmas

I’ll do a quick recap of my thoughts on my film. It’s my first Stop Motion Animated film I’ve Seen, It looks amazing, I like the song, and it ended up as one of my favorite films.

The 1st Dimension – Involves a Line

The 2nd Dimension – Involves a Flat Surface

The 3rd Dimension – Involves the Physical World

The 4th Dimesion – Involves Interaction with Film

The 5th Dimesion – Involves The Twilight Zone

The 6th Dimension – Involves … THE FORBIDDEN ZONE

This film was made for two reasons:

1) To capture the essence of The Mystic Knights of the Oingo Boingo (Later Named Oingo Boingo) on Film

2) To Retire Director Richard Elfman’s work from the Mystic Knights and to start a film Career (The Group later lead by his brother, Danny Elfman)

The Film is set in Black n’ White and takes place in a small house in Venice, CA owned by the Hercules Family (Previously owned by a Narcotics Peddler, Pimp, and slumlord named Huckleberry P. Jones after discovering the portal to the 6th Dimension in the basement.)

The film focuses on how the Hercules Family,One by One, discovers that in the Basement Lies the Portal to a place called The 6th Dimension and they each enter it.

The 6th Dimension itself is a kingdom which is ruled by King Fausto (Herve Villechaize) and Queen Doris (Susan Tyrrell) with their daughter, the topless Princess, and their Frog Man servant Bust Rod.

Each of the Characters has their own experience inside the 6th Dimension

Frenchy Hercules (Marie-Pascale Elfman) is the First of the family to enter the 6th Dimension. She could be considered the Protagonist since the film mainly focuses on everyone trying to find her and get her back home. She eventually get found by the princess and brought to the King & Queen.

The King falls in love with her, but the Queen, Noticing this, tries to have her tortured or killed throughout the film.

Flash Hercules (Phil Gordon) and Gramps both go into the 6th Dimension to try and rescue Frenchy but get captured by the Queen.

Pa Hercules get blasted though the Stratosphere and ends up in the 6th Dimension and gets captured, but he doesn’t really care.

Ma Hercules is the last to enter the 6th Dimension after realizing that no one else in the house but her.

Although the film is about the Hercules Family, They didn’t go into the 6th Dimension after Huckleberry did. The film also stars Squeezit and Rene (Matthew Bright) the Henderson Twins. Rene, Squeezit’s Transgender Twin, goes in first and becomes a slave to the King and Queen.

His/Her Brother, Squeezit (often called Chicken Boy) Notices his Sibling was Missing but doesn’t do anything about it. When Frenchy goes missing, Flash seeks the help of Squeezit but he refuses. Finally, when Flash calls him from the 6th Dimension to ask for help again, He decides to help them.

When he decides to go into the 6th Dimension, he’s caught and taken to Satan (Danny Elfman) where he bargains with him saying that he will help Rene and Frenchy if Squeezit can capture the Princess and bring her to him and then Squeezit loses his head.

The Film does have songs throughout it, most of them written by Danny Elfman and are sung by most of the cast. The one I would recommend out of them is “Squeezit the Moocher” which is just Cab Calloway’s “Minnie the Moocher” with different lyrics, but I enjoyed that one the most.

It also has a few animated sequences by Cartoonist John Muto.They look like they come out Monty Python’s Flying Circus and are mixed in with Live Action Sequences. They are very minimal and they can be seen when someone enters the 6th Dimension or during a song.

When the film was released, It was not liked and Richard Elfman was accused on Racism (The film contains a few characters using Blackface) and Anti-Semitism; but it later gain a cult following, got Midnight Screenings much like Rocky Horror Picture Show, and in 2009, was Colorized.

Final Thoughts: It was strange, but I enjoyed it. The film seemed like a mix of The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari, and Alice in Wonderland with the Set Designs and the Character’s Personalities. I didn’t really have any favorite characters except for Queen Doris and Maybe Satan. I recommend seeing it in Black n White since I think the Colorized version dates it.

[Originally Posted 5 June 2013.]

I’m making this as a spur of the moment. It pretty much my Thoughts on the Films of the Director Terrence Malick.
[ This was mostly inspired by Brad & Jake of the Cinema Snob reactions to Tree of Life & To the Wonder. Plus I wanted to do something like this again after reviewing most of Ed Wood’s films. ]
This will not have any kind of schedule to it, I’ll post my thoughts on his film after I watch it (whenever it will be.)
For the First Part of this I watched his second film, Days of Heaven.

The main plot of this film is that Richard Gere, His Girlfriend, and his younger sister go out to Texas to work for a Farmer harvesting Crops after he accidentally killed his Boss. The Girlfriend is told to be Richard’s Sister to apparently keep suspicions low, but when she gets married to the farmer’s son the film soon evolves into a Love Triangle plot.

The whole film apparently already happened and is told by the Younger Sister. She talks similar to a Texan Stereotype and it gets annoying fast and most of the time I just wanted to press the Mute button. (Which was another Problem I had with the Opening Music)
I can’t really talk much about Richard Gere since his character didn’t speak throughout the majority of the film. I could say he was alright, along with the Girlfriend. Plus they rarely show any emotion in their performances. they all looked really bored and a bit lost sometimes.
and then there’s what takes up the Majority of the film…..Nature Shots.

Apparently, from what I’ve been told, Terrence Malick has a lot of random Shots of Nature throughout his films and the Critics Eat that up & consider Malick a genius for it.
Which makes me question if they loved it and not Prometheus since the Majority of it was Great CGI (Plot still stinks for that film)
I mean they will look at one shot
and shout: TERRENCE MALICK IS A GENIUS!
You need to have an interesting Story & Characters for that to work.

and then there’s the Music…my least favorite part of this film.
Right from the opening scene I already hated the music for this film. It got a bit repeatative for me and It started to give me a headache.

Overall, I found it boring. Yes, the film is pretty but that can’t help the obvious plot, bored actors, & mediocore characters. If your a fan of Terrence, you probably enjoy this film alot. Me, I can’t really say anything for this film. Much like Surf Nazis Must Die, there really wasn’t anything that engaged me into the film and made me want to see more. (Although I’ve seen alot of films like this that I have enjoyed.) In the end, it left me just wanting to watch a different film.

Next time I might review either Thin Red Line or Tree of Life.

[Originally Posted 17 June 2013.]

…..I might as well get this one over with…..

The Plot (From what I could gather from it) apparently is about the childhood of some kid and his two Brothers with his parents (Brad Pitt & Jessica Chastain)in the 1950’s. In the beginning it shows that one of his Brothers died (Judging by the era, I’m going to guess in the Vietnam War.) and it takes this kid at most 40 Years since in the future it shows Sean Penn in modern day going on with his day but seeming depressed (or Bored, Afterall he is in a Malick film.) but he only sticks around for 5 minutes of the film.

The 1st act consists of him being born and the early years of childhood and then….it cuts away to shots of Star Systems.

For at least 30 MINUTES, we are treated to shots of Outer Space & the beginning of Earth with some meaningless & Muttered dialogue being fed to us by Jessica Chastain & Sean Penn. In fact the beginning & ending of the film were Star Systems. (To be honest, most of the footage looks like it’s deleted scenes from the BBC series Planet Earth.)

and after all of that, the Kid’s little Brother is born as well as his other Brother. The Rest of 2nd Act is his dealing with Sibling Rivalry and the 3rd Act is just the Kid acting like an Asshole to some of the people he knows.

The Characters in this film had 0 personalities to them except for Brad Pitt

In fact he was the only character who had any Depth to him. The Kids & Wife apparently grow to hate him in the 3rd Act & the Main Kid thinks of killing him. WHY!? He’s not that bad of a character or Father. He may seem strict at times but it’s shown he clearly loves his kids (Even though one of them was planning to kill him.)

FINAL THOUGHTS: This film was an Absolute WASTE OF MY TIME.

I couldn’t really find a central Narrative for the film with the Random Sh*t that was thrown at me during this film, The only actor I could talk about was Pitt since (Like I said) He was the only one with a Personality to him, Sean Penn was only around for 5 mintues so I can’t really say much about him, and most of the time throughout the film I was just looking at my Phone since It kept Boring me to No End.

AND SOMEHOW THIS GOT NOMINATED FOR BEST PICTURE?!?! WHY!?!?!???

The Only thing it should have been nominated for was Best Cinematography and Best Art Direction.

Overall, Skip this film. Don’t Watch it if you want to see it. If you’re a Malick Fan, I can’t see anything interesting in it like you do. So I am going to stay far away from this film for a LONG time.

Next time I’ll see Thin Red Line

I Finally got around to another Terrence Malick film…….Oh Joy…….

This is The Thin Red Line

From what I could gather from this film, the Story tells of a Soldier whose been AWOL for a certian amount of time on an island in the South Pacific. He is then found by a Troop Carrier and sent into Guadalcanal as Reinforcements against the Japanese and is lead by Lt. Colonel Tall (Nick Nolte).

The Film’s online synopsis says it mainly focuses on the AWOL Private, but as per usual with Malick’s films, it oftens loses tracks of who it is suppose to focus on as it swtiches the focus to Nick Nolte’s character and then during the final minutes of the film it switches back to the AWOL Soldier who returns to the Island where he was found.

Also as usual with most of his films, It often will show a bunch of Pretty Shots of Nature while someone mutters dialogue, this time the Dialogue focuses on how War is Bad.

The Film states it has a good cast with actors that alot of people would recognize, but AGAIN as usual with his films, they are stuck with Minor Dialogue and Scenes in the Film. For example, Woody Harrelson is one of the big names on the Poster, but he only gets at least 5 minutes of Screen Time and his Character gets killed; Sean Penn is also listed among the many stars, but he is in the beginning of the film for 3 minutes. This happens constantly with actors John Cusack, George Clooney, Adrian Brody (Who was actually upset that most of his scenes were cut from the film.) and John Travolta who oddly looked a bit like Freddie Mercury in the film.

FINAL THOUGHTS: Boring. It’s Another Malick Film to Skip. It has the Same Traits as Tree of Life and Days of Heaven and When even one of the Actors in the film gets upset with how little he is in the film, you know it has some problems.

Next Time of T.M. Thoughts, I’ll look at The New World, then Badlands, and Finally Into the Wonder.

[Originally Posted 13 August 2013.]

Well…at least I’m almost finished with T.M. Thoughts…this is The New World.

This film tells of the Founding of Jamestown, Virginia in 1607. The plot focuses on John Smith (Colin Farrell) who is pardoned by Capt. Christopher Newport (Christopher Plummer) and is put there to lead a group of Explorers.

While exploring the New Land, they encounter the Native Americans who reside nearby. John is then captured and brought to the Native Chief. When he is about to be executed, he is then saved by Pocahontas, the two eventually start to fall in Love and the Settlers eventually decide to leave, but John doesn’t like the Idea.

Thankfully, unlike Tree of Life, the film does have a central Narrative and it does keep the focus on John & Pocahontas. Although, it still does have Quietly spoken dialogue with Nature Shots. (not as many as Tree of Life though.) Also the plot comes off as Boring especially with a Two hour & 15 minute runtime.

The Characters don’t really express much emotion, aside from maybe Boredom. John Smith is mainly Quiet throughout the film except maybe some Narrative Dialogue.

Pocahontas does develop though as she later adapts to the ways of the English Settlers and later learns to speak English, but she does come off also showing no emotion.

Later in the Third Act of the film, Christian Bale shows up as John Rolfe who starts to fall in love with Pocahontas. Althought he might be introduced near the end of the film, He gets the most Dialogue among all of the actors.

Christopher Plummer’s Character shows up only at the Beginning of the film and then he later shows up after a Battle Scene between the Settlers & the Native Americans. I couldn’t find much to talk about his character except that he exists.

(I later found out Christopher Plummer was upset that most of his scenes were cut from the film and wrote a letter to Terrence stating he wouldn’t work with him again & told him he needs to hire a Writer. I extermely agree with that.)

FINAL THOUGHTS: It’s just Boring. I couldn’t really get upset at anything during the film, Except for the length, so I could put this off as just Boring. The Characters were just there, the plot wasn’t intriguing to me and, of course, the visuals were Fantastic. So I think this about at the same level as Days of Heaven, I can’t really complain about it

[Originally posted 16 August 2013.]

Well, it’s the second to Last blog about Malick & it’s his first Feature film…I hope it’s not as boring as the others…

The film start off in South Dakota where a Garbage truck worker named Kit (Martin Sheen) meets up with a girl named Holly (Sissy Spacek) who eventually fall in love but she keeps it a secret from her Father. Her Father eventually finds out when Kit shows up in her house and he Shoots him. The Rest of the film is the couple on the run & how Holly starts to loose interest in him.

The film still does includes some of Malick’s traits he uses in film like A Narrator (Spacek) and Pretty Imagery, but the imagery is very Minor and the Narration helps move the plot and describes Holly’s Thoughts while on the run from the Law.

The film is supposedly loosely based around the 1958 Murdering spree of Charles Starkweather & Caril Ann Fugate. The film does feature a murder spree from Kit although Holly was mainly just a witness to the occurences.
The Film does have the characters showing emotions & they do seem to have personalities to them like Martin Sheen being a Charming guy whose one the run from the law. Plus we also get a Cameo by Terrence Malick.

Oddly, he spoke his lines a bit Quietly & came off as a bit Shy. (That could be a reasons he never does interviews or goes to award shows & Martin Sheen said he was “the Shyest Man I know.”)

FINAL THOUGHTS:……Surprisingly, I liked it alot. With the usual great Camera work, the Acting from Sheen & Spacek, and with a good story, It ended up fairing as Terrence’s Best Film that he’s made so far. Out of all of his films, This would be the One I would HIGHLY Recommend seeing. So…Go see it.